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Friday, 24 June 2016

Josephine, Volume 3: Switching Sides by Penelope Bagieu Review

Josephine and Simon get together and the story goes through the motions of couples dating: they get to know each other’s friends and family, move in together, and then kids.

They’re a good match as Josephine can’t cook and Simon can, and it’s amusing seeing her single friends try to make it seem like nothing will change with them now that Josephine ain’t single like them. I also wasn’t sure if they’d keep the baby – they do live in godless France after all! – but Josephine does desperately want to be a mother so I should’ve guessed. There’s not as much fun to be had though with content family life. Stories are better when the protagonist is struggling for something and there’s more humour to be found in that approach too. Josephine finding love and settling down – while satisfying as someone who likes her character – isn’t as entertaining as watching the single Josephine bumble through life. The same thing happened with Dupuy/Berberian’s Monsieur Jean whose spark of brilliance was lost when he gave up the bachelor life and became a husband/father.

C’est la vie, eh? The third Josephine book is my least favourite of the series and, though it has its moments, it’s probably for the best that Penelope Bagieu put a pin in it here.